


The Gravid Maiden

by fiach91



Category: Exalted, ゼロの使い魔 | Zero no Tsukaima | The Familiar of Zero
Genre: Other, Violence, body-horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-05-05 21:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5390198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiach91/pseuds/fiach91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louise failed. No familiar answered her call and she was sent home, a disgrace to her family and ancestors.</p><p>But in failure, something else took notice, something more than an a mere bound servant, more than the void could ever hope to be. Now she is Exalted by the Great-Mother and all of Halkegenia shall tremble under the steps of a infant titian.</p><p>Woe to the world as a Princess of The Green Sun awakens to her power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue: Failures

With the crunch of wheels on cobblestone the horse and carriage rolled into Valliére estate. Halting in front of the manor house the horses whinnied as the coachman pulled on the reins. Once the horses were calm the man hopped down and strode up the carriage door and pulled it open.

“Here we are Lady Valliére, back home.” He said as he held the door open.

Stepping out of the carriage, Louise De La Valliére squinted though puffy red eyes as the summer sun shone in her face. Paying no mind to the coachman, she walked towards the manor in a daze as her family’s footmen went about unpacking her things.

“Louise!” Her sister Cattelya called as she all but ran out of their home to her little sister. Cattelya threw her arms around the youngest Valliére and embraced her sister tightly.

“Hello Catt.” Louise mumbled as she halfheartedly returned her older sister’s hug. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine Louise, but I’m more worried about you.” Cattelya said as she loosened her grip and held her little sister at arm’s length. “This… has not been the best week for you, to say the least, I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine Catt, I’d just like to go to my room and have a nap before dinner.” Louise answered, gaze cemented firmly on the ground.

“Oh… Okay dear.” Cattelya said softly as her smile fell off of her face and a worried frown replaced it. “If you want to talk at all you know where I am most of the time.”

“In the menagerie?” a wan smile grew as Louise fondly remember that place..

Cattelya laughed her beautifully musical laugh and gave her sister another quick hug and a kiss on the check, before she sped off in swirl of cloth and lace to oversee the transfer of her belongings.

Louise sighed to herself as she was left alone once again, her shoulders slumping down even further as the brief comfort of her tenderhearted sister left her. The now familiar feeling of tears welling up returned.

Breathing in deeply Louise girded her shoulders and set her jaw. She scrunched her eyes shut to force the tears back. She was Valliére; Even if she was a failure to her family, she would keep the dignity and honor that was expected of her station, even if her magic was weak she was still of noble blood. A child of the Founder.

“I-I will not shame myself anymore!” Louise declared to herself, hands balling into fists.

Her newly summoned resolve faltered when she had happened to glance at one of the upstairs windows.

Her Mother, Karin De La Valliére, the matriarch of the Valliére household and the renowned and feared Heavy Wind stood by the window. She was looking down at Louise from her study, a cold and distant look in her eyes that sent a shiver down her spine.

They locked gazes for a few seconds; Mother and child lost in their own little world for a few moments. The spell was broken when Karin turned away from her with a flourish of her mantle; turning her back to her youngest child.

Louise ran into the house, fresh tears streaming down her face at the rejection.

=========#

Dinner was an awkward affair, to say the least.

The dining room itself was a grandiose affair with pictures of the Valliére family hanging from the walls, staring down at their decedents with unmoving eyes. Servants bustled to and fro around the table as they took and placed plates of food and glasses filled with drinks down for the Vallére family.

Across the table from her Louise picked listlessly at her food; her meal half eaten and cold while her wine glass stood empty as it waited for its second refill of the night. The poor girl kept on directing fitful glances at Mother, afraid that Karin would say or do something.

For her part Karin seemed to be unusually interested in her soup, if the way she kept her eyes locked on it was any indication. Her own expression was one of annoyance and frustration, as she pointedly did not look in the direction of her youngest.

Cattelya's lips thinned into line; she’d have to have a word with her mother later on, being disappointed in Louise’s lack of meaningful magical development was one thing, but upsetting Louise with her atrocious behavior when the girl was so obviously upset was simply unacceptable.

Her eldest sister was a study in contrast to her little sister’s dour mood. The academic had eaten her meal at mildly impolite speeds and had left little on the plate save for some detritus.She also had a half empty wine bottle beside her and glass that was full to the brim, which she took a long swallow from.

Éléanore really had put the red wine away quite quickly and even now she could see her sister’s moments become sluggish under the effects of the rather potent Gallian Château Puysserguier Red. Not to mention the fact that Éléanore didn’t exactly have the highest tolerance to begin with and that she could be quite... inconsiderate when she had a bit too much.

‘Hopefully there wouldn’t be any…’

“So Louise, how big was the explosion?”

‘…Problems. Founder darn it all!’ Cattelya swore mentally as she turned in her seat and gave her tipsy sister a stern glare as the room fell into a tense silence as everyone in the room, serving staff and Valliére as they all watched the drama unfold.

Louise started at the question, looking up from her food to stare at her sister as colour flooded her face.

“E-Excuse me!?” the youngest daughter said, her voice going up an octave.

“Well…” Éléanore drolled, resting her head in her hand. “You’ve always caused a bang whenever you failed a spell, I was just wondering how big this one was that’s all. I mean it was probably massive, but I’d like a first-hand account from an academic standpoint.”

“Nothing happened.”

Blinking in surprise, Éléanore frowned at her little sister and jabbed an accusing finger at her.

“Obviously something happened, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” She snapped, “Ergo, something must have happened.”

“T-there wasn’t anything!” Louise shrilled, standing up fast enough to knock her chair down. “Nothing happened! T-There wasn’t even an explosion! Just a big f-fat nothing!”

With that, she fled, tears streaming and her sobs echoing through the dining room.

“Éléanore!” Cattelya shouted as she leapt from her seat. “How could you!?There was absolutely no reason for you to be so cruel to to the poor dear, absolutely none! I have half a mind to take you outside and give you a… good… thrashing…”

Cattelya’s threats to the physical well-being of her sister trailed off as the glasses on the table began to shake and rattle. As one, the two sisters turned away from one another and looked down the table at their mother. Her face was red with rage and her hands were clenched into tight fists as her anger took a grip on her. Her husband had paled as half buried memories of her calamitous temper returned to him.

He wisely dove into the relative cover provided by the table.

One by one the glasses on the table shattered with the shifting air pressure imposed by Karin’s subconscious will, until finally the glass in Éléanore's hand cracked, sending wine all over her sleeve.

“Éléanore.” Karin spat out from between grit teeth. “I wish to speak to you in my study, alone.”

=========#


	2. Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1.1: Regrets

========#

Tears blurred Louise’s sight as she ran down the halls of her family’s estate, paying no heed to the startled servants that she passed as she threw open the doors to her room and tossed herself onto her bed. Burying her face in her pillows she sobbed messily, tears and snot staining the lacy fabric as the youngest Vallére vented her frustrations.

“It isn’t not fair!” she wailed to herself. “I-I tried my b-best; I studied harder than anyone else, I knew the history and theory of m-magic better than anyone else, I p-prayed every day to G-god and the F-Founder for magic. I-I begged them for it, p-pleaded for it”

All of those long nights in the library studying, all of the effort and time she had put into her classes. She had weathered her classmate’s ridicule, at being called the Zero, had endured the pitying looks from her teachers, people who believed her to be nothing but the runt of Valliére household that would never amount to anything but fodder for an arranged marriage.

“I-It was for nothing!” She hissed as tears streamed down her face, her grip on her pillow beginning to rip and tear with the strength of her grip, goose feathers and fluff spilling out of rents.

Screaming a god awful sound into her pillow, filled with rage and frustration, Louise held the scream for a long moment as she gave voice to her sorrows.

Eventually she began to run out of breath and her scream trailed off, the poor child going limp on her bed as the fight drained out of her.

“It’s not fair.” Louise lamented, snuffling her nose. “I tried my best, I just… I j-just wish… ” She began plead, before she sighed, “What’s the point, not like anyone would listen.” Louise mumbled as she began to drift off.

Snuggling deeper into the warmth of her bed, Louise fell into the fugue state in-between wakefulness and sleep. The last of her strength fading as the weight of her eyelids becoming unbearable. Soon enough she fell into a light slumber, the occasional sound of distress leaving her as she tossed and turned in her bed.

‘Creak.’

The sound of a creaking floorboard woke Louise from her half-slumber; pink eyes snapping open at the intrusion.

‘W-What was that?' Louise thought rapidly, ‘I-Is there someone in my r-room!?’

Her heart beat like a sledge hammer against her rib cage as adrenaline flooded her system. What were they doing here? There could have been a multitude of reasons; from political assassination from her family’s rivals, to kidnapping so that they could use her as leverage for their machinations or to just slit her throat to spite her parents.

Slowly as she could possibly go, Louise reached under her pillow for where she had stashed her wand. Even if she was barely a mage an explosion to the face generally speaking put pave to an attack, back in the Academy she’d stopped more than one of the more physical kind of bully with the disasters that she called her magic.

‘Oh. Darn.’ She thought as a chunk of ice lodged itself into her stomach, her hand feeling around the empty space where her wand should have been.

It wasn’t there. Her, wand, the only form of defense that she had, wasn’t in its place. It wasn’t there underneath her pillow because she had, in a bout of self-loathing fury, tossed it out of the carriage on the way home and into the Amer River.

‘Creak’

This time it was closer, about halfway across the room if Louise had to guess. Gulping back the bile that crawled up her throat from the terror, Louise raised herself off the bed at an agonizingly slow pace and turned around to face the intruder.

A dark figure stood before her bed; clad in a black cloak and cowl that covered all of its features from the head down.

The… thing stood over six feet tall with its head stooped down to cast its features into shadow. Inhuman fingers poked out its sleeves, grey skin and iron black claw like finger nails, the digits wiggling unconsciously in ways that no human hand could ever do.

Louise felt the bile rise again when a glowing blue tongue-worm thing peaked out of its hood, casting the room in a dank cerulean light. She opened her mouth to scream for help and to articulate her absolute terror, but the thing was too fast.

The second she had opened her mouth to call out, it was upon her faster than she had ever thought possible. It shoved her onto the bed, pinning her to the sheets with its mass as it pushed a cloth soaked in some sickly sweet smelling concoction over her nose and mouth. She struggled; kicking and clawing at the thing’s pallid flesh to no avail. Her gorge came again and this time she wasn’t able to keep it down. She bucked and squirmed, her vision fading as she choked on her own vomit and the effects of the Founder knew what it was using on her stripped the strength from her like a torch to ice.

As the poison did its work, Louise’s struggles ceased. The only sound in the suddenly quiet room was the sound of pitiful gurgles as the contents of her own stomach smothered her to death.

‘N-no… Not like this…’ She thought dazedly as her vision blurred.

The thing noticed her distress, however, and moved off of her and with surprising care pushed her onto her side.

Retching messily, Louise ruined her sheets as she voided her stomach onto the bed, the foul stuff sliding easily out of her throat. With exceptional care, the creature reached into her mouth with a clawed finger and cleared the rest of the sick from her mouth and throat.

Making a pleased sound, the creature rubbed her gently on the back for a few seconds to clear out the last of her regurgitated dinner, before it picked her up by the middle and slung her over its gangly shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

The last thing the youngest Valliére saw before her vision turned black was the window to her room falling away from her as the monstrous thing leapt out it.

================#

‘Click Clack.’ Went Karin’s heels as she stomped through the halls of her home, a thunderous look on her face.

Above the Heavy Wind her husband’s ancestors looked down upon her. Judging her, sneering at her weak bloodline and wane children that she had borne. It was rather comforting in a strangely aggravating way, Karin thought with a sigh, that she still retained some of the insecurities that had plagued her since her youth.

The old Valliére family was dead for the most part and she remained herself they could no longer disapprove her or her marriage to the Duke, they could not insult and demean her and her children unless the pompous fools decided to return to the world of the living as ghosts.

And Karin had made a point of developing and learning spells that would affect the incorporeal bodies of the dead, just in case.

Of course her living family were not as easily removed, Karin thought glumly as she looked over her shoulder to give Cattelya a glare.

Her middle child was standing at the end of the hallway with her arms crossed with a hard look in her eyes and a glare that mirrored her own.

It was because of her that she was down here, approaching her youngest daughter’s sleeping chamber so that they could talk about recent events in a more composed manner than Éléanore’s tactless prodding.

Just the thought of her eldest’s vulgar bullying made her grit her teeth hard enough that she could nearly hear them creak with the strain. She had had words with Éléanore in her private study, to chastise her daughter intimately. For the next hour.

Once that was done and Éléanore had been sent to her room without supper (Founder, she had no idea that such a punishment would be viable on her twenty year old daughter.), Catt had of course come into her study and dragged, literally dragged her, out by her arm and had told in no small words that she was going to apologies to Louise for being an ‘insensitive brute with the emotional range of an inbred turnip.’

So here she was, standing outside of her daughter’s bedroom, immobilized by the familiar feeling of complete and utter bafflement at just what she was supposed to bloody well do in these situations! She had always left these sort of things to her husband or Cattelya, she was better at instilling discipline and duty onto her children, which for she had succeeded quite well in her own opinion, then she was at comforting them.

Staring at Louise’s door for a few uncomfortably long seconds, Karin sucked in a bracing breath before she rapped her knuckles smartly on the door.

“Louise, may I come in?” She asked through the door, wincing at the harshness of her tone. She hadn't meant to be that loud… “I wish to speak to you.”

When there was no answer Karin nervously glanced back to Cattelya, who made a keep going gesture to her with an annoyed look on her face.

“Very well.” Karin said as she stepped forward and turned the doorknob. “I am coming in now young lady and you had better be decent.”

Swinging the door open, Karin stepped through the threshold and into her daughter’s room. Gaze sweeping through the room, Karin noticed the disheveled state of the room; Louise’s scattered bed sheets and the small pool of vomit laying in the middle of the mess, its stench premating room, and the velvet curtains billowing from the open window with its frame scratched from a forced opening.

“Louise!?” She called out vainly, her voice uncharacteristically high, “Are you here, answer me!?”

“Mother, what is?” Cattelya shouted as she ran into the room, face flush from dashing down the hall.

“Louise is gone!” Karin said, a ball of ice settling in her heart. “Someone has taken her!”

‘She believed that I hated her.’ Karin thought in a strange serenity that was in complete odds with her rising panic. ‘I haven’t even spoken to her since she got home and she thought I had hated her. And I may never see her again. Not alive at least.'

“We… We need to mobilize the Bondsmen. Go to your Father and get a search party organised and try and narrow down the escape routes!” She ordered, marching out of the room with Catt on her heels.

“Where are you going Mother, what are you doing!?” Catt demanded as her frail constitution struggled to keep pace with her timorous mother.

“I’m going get Mr. Fluffles and get into the air.” She shouted, not looking at her puffing daughter as she did away with dignity and broke into a run. “I’m going to find the son of a bitch that had the gall to take my daughter from and make him beg for death!”

=========#


	3. 1.2

Chapter 1.2: Chosen

=========#

Louise awoke with a start.

Groaning, the youngest of the Valllière family pulled herself up off of the damp ground and opened her eyes to darkness.

There was nothing here that she could see; there was no light to illuminate the pit where she had found herself, nothing but a dark so pitch-black that she literally couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.

Her breathing became laborious as panic settled in, Louise scrambled backwards as quickly as possible, hitting a jagged stone wall, warm blood pouring from her side from where she had slashed herself deeply on a rock.

“Foundersfire!” Louise swore as she clutched at her side, blood drizzling through her hands and her soaking her blouse.

“Ergh!” She gasped as cold pain overtook her, sob wracking her frame as she grit her teeth against the agony.

“Ah you’re awake.”

The terrified girl froze at the voice which seemingly came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Her eyes scanned the dark, huddling in on herself as sight proved to be utterly useless.

“W-Who’s there!?” She demanded with all the false bravado she could muster, wincing as her shout pulled at her wound.

“Show myself?” The voice replied in its unnerving echo “Well, if you insist, Louise.” the muffled sound of shifting cloth reaching her ears.

From where it sat perched on an outcrop of rocks, a blue worm-like tongue peaked out of the creature's black hood, illuminating the squalid cave in an eerie blue light that made the shadows it cast deeper and more foreboding.

“Oh God…” Louise whispered as pure, animal terror overtook her, her back pressing back hard against the cave wall in an instinctive attempt to put as much distance as possible between her and the thing that had kidnapped her. “W-What are you, s-some kind of demon?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I am.” The demon said as it slid off of it perch and moved down towards the terrified child.

“S-Stay back!” She pleaded as her hand probed the surface of the wall behind her in a futile attempt to find a means of escape.

Slowly, it pulled back its hood with clawed, pallid hands to revel it's lamprey-like head, its tongue flickering in and out from its gaping, razor toothed maw.

“You are Louise De La Valllière, the youngest child of the acclaimed Vallière household.” It recounted as it walked closer and closer to her. “And out of all of those glorious ancestors, that most prestigious bloodline, you were born. A complete and utter failure of a mage, an embarrassment to your ancestors and your family, a Zero.”

“Shut up!” Louise screamed at the creature, scrabbling at the floor to pick up a craggy piece of granite, cutting into her hand even as she tossed it at the demon as hard as she could manage.

It caught the fragment in one hand, its grotesque head turning to look at it for a few seconds, its glow-worm tongue flickering out to inspect it, before it crushed it to less than dust between its fingers.

“Hmph, like all of your efforts thus far in your life, that little attack was both an utter failure and utterly disappointing. It is of no surprise that your mother would reject you as you are now.”

“S-Shut u-up!” Louise wailed as tears and snot dribbled down her face, her chest heaving up and down as she cried, “J-Just shut up alrea- argh!” She screamed as her sobs pulled at the wound on her side, even more of her blood pouring out onto the stone.

“But, it is not your fault.” it said as it kneeled down on its haunches so that its worm-like head was level with her own. The blue light of its tongue near blinding up this close, flickering at her face.

“What –urgh- do you mean?” Louise said through gritted teeth, tears of pain and inadequacy pouring down her face. “You didn’t s-seem to t-think that earlier - oh Foundersfire it hurts!”

“I mean, Louise, that your failures cannot be squarely placed upon your shoulders.” It gestured lazily with a clawed hand. “During your time at your Academy, you studied longer and harder than all of your peers, you worked for every little success that you achieved; you spared no time for friends or love or even your own comfort.”

“A-And it was all for nothing!” Louise spat, fear leaving her for the familiar warmth of indignation suffused her.

“Indeed, all of your efforts were ultimately pointless, but is not your fault that the tides of fate were unkind to you.” It leaned closer to the Vallière child before continuing. “You prayed to your God, to your Founder for their blessing, that your magic would come and you would prove yourself as a mage to your mother, but they left your prayers unanswered and you fell.”

Rage and shame warred for dominance within Louise; she turned away as the creature’s words hit home.

Louise knew that she was a failure –that she was an embarrassment to her family. But to have it all shoved in her face, not even Kirche had been so cruel to her. She wanted to be angry with this thing, she wanted to rail against it, but fear and her own failures smothered the rage.

“But just because your God and Founder didn’t answer your prayers, does not mean that they have been unheard.”

“I-I won’t be t-tempted by some d-demon!” Louise spat back, years of religious belief coming to the fore. She may have been a failure, but she was still a member of the Vallière family; She would not shame them further by making a demonic pact!

“Really,” it said, reaching out towards her, an emerald glow emanated from the creature’s open hand, a light more brilliant and beautiful than any she had ever seen. She could feel its light warm her unlike anything she had ever felt even as she reached for it, entranced by the little sun like a moth drawn to a flame. “Are you quite sure?”

And then it closed its palm, the viridian light snuffedout to leave nothing but the blue glow of the demon's tongue.

Louise couldn’t help but whine as the wonderful, beautiful light left her.

“My mistress, the Sea that Marched Against the Flame, the Great Mother Kimbery has heard your prayers and has seen fit to answer them.” The thing that had taken the light from her said, “She has seen your suffering, and has answered your prayers when no one else would.”

“She wishes to Exalt you, to make you Her voice in this world and Her Champion, for you to be her Princess of the Green Sun.”

“W-What do you mean!?” Louise demanded, voice going shrill. “What do you want!?”

“I am offering you a chance to be more than a failure, to be more than a zero. To be respected and worshiped. If you take it, that star and all of its power will be yours and you shall become something greater than even the mages of this land.”

"You're offering magic?" Louise questioned wearily, eyes narrowing at the creature.

"Yes, my Princess, of a sort." It nodded its worm-head in confirmation, "A kind that dwarfs the power of the elements that you have here in this world."

Louise gulped nervously her eyes shifting as she thought about it. The idea of having power, of not being the zero anymore was tempting, more tempting than she was comfortable admitting to herself, but even more was the desire not be an embarrassment, to not be a stain on her families collective honor.

And maybe Mother would be able to look at her with something other than disdain if she came back with some magic, she wouldn't have to know where exactly she had gotten it from.

"W-What is the catch?" Louise demanded, "These thing always come with a catch."

"This is an offer of servitude, not slavery. You will be a Princecess serving under the Great Mother, with all the privileges and responsibilities that are expected of your rank." the thing reassured her, "You are not selling your soul, but taking up a mantle of rulership on behalf of a greater power, much like your family already does in the name of your Queen."

“So Louise, my Princess, what will it be?” It once again opened its hand to unleash the wondrous green light, the emerald star sitting in his palm. “Will you accept this offer, this Princedom and rise above those who have demeaned you? will you rule in the name of Kimberry and the Yozi as their hand in this world, will you prove to yourself and to your mother that you are more than just a failure?”

“Yes…” She breathed as reached towards the enrapturing green light that shone from the emerald star in the palm of its hand, and this time he let her touch it.

With a flash of green and the ripping of the demon’s cloak, his flesh exploded around her in a cloud of gore and bile, smothering over her screams as it hardened around her into a what could be generously called giant, steaming hot maggot vaguely the size of Louise, a cocoon for a neophyte titan.

 

=========#


	4. Chapter 1.3

Chapter 1.3: The Second Breath  
  
=========#  
  
 _She was falling._  
  
 _Deeper and deeper under the waves she sank, the light of the sun fading as it was smothered by the jealous waters._  
  
 _Here, down in the depths of an ocean without end, Louise De La Valllière floated. She was perfectly still as she was swallowed by the waters; her thoughts a dreamy haze as her mind remembered memories that were not her own, loved people she had never met and lived out millennial old vendettas that in the end seemed so petty._  
  
 _Like a feather, Louise floated down and down, awake yet dreaming, asleep yet conscious._  
  
 _Eventually, after a moment that stretched to eternity, she came to a stop. She floated there, suspended in the utter blackness of the deepest ocean to ever exist._  
  
\------------#  
  
“I blame you for this Siesta, if you’d just taken a bloody torch I’d be able see this murk." The sixteen year old myrmidon groused.  
  
The fifteen year old just rolled her eyes at the older boy’s whining, thankful that cowl and goggles she wore hid her expression from him.  
  
“Go shove it up your arse Albert, it’s not my fault you can’t see in the dark as well as I can.”  
  
She was dressed in her black-leathers for this operation; a frightening number of potions, poisons and knives hidden about her person. While Siesta hoped dearly that she wouldn’t have to use them tonight. She would gladly slaughter all who opposed the coming of The Great Mother’s Prophet, but smothering a child with a poison soaked cloth because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time wasn’t exactly something she looked forward to.  
  
The pair were making their way through the cave system as quietly as possible, with some persons having more success than others.  
  
“Why in the Great Mother’s bosom are you wearing a suit of platemail!?” Siesta hissed as his armor clanked as he moved, the sound echoing on the jagged walls of the cave. “The folks back in Tabris can probably hear you!”  
  
“’Cause when we get to the Princess, I want to make sure she’s got a properly dashing man there to take care of her.”  
  
“By The Mother’s waves!” Siesta shouted, aghast, turning to stare at her cousin in growing horror, “You’re not - you wouldn’t - you’re not seriously going to try and seduce the Prophet of the Great Mother!”  
  
Albert grinned toothily at his cousin.  
  
\-----------#  
  
 _It started as a pin-prick of pain on the back of her knee, more like an itch than anything else, which soon spread out to cover all of her._  
  
 _Louise hissed at the sensation, her eyes fluttering open as the feeling grew more intense._  
  
 _The poor thing would have been better off keeping her eyes shut._  
  
 _She was dissolving; her skin was coming off of her in flakes to expose the reddened flesh below. Blood flowed from her pockmarked skin; creating a murky cloud of gore around her._  
  
 _Then the pain hit_  
  
 _Louise screamed as the acidic water touched the raw nerves under her skin; which proved to be a mistake as it flooded down her throat._  
  
 _She bucked and roiled as her throat boiled, her lungs dissolving inside of her. Louise watched in horror as her tongue floated out of the ruined mouth and disintegrate right in front of her. She felt the agony of her stomach melt before the might of Kimbery and Her waters flood out to reduce the rest of her organs to bloody slurry._  
  
 _Soon, she was transformed into a nightmarish horror; her flesh rapidly giving way to the acid until there was naught scraps of muscle and twitching ligaments on bone and a pair of eyes that for some reason were spared the spite of the Great-Mother._  
  
 _It was of a revelation of horror to Louise, that even when reduced to this level of degradation, that she was both alive and quite capable of feeling pain._  
  
 _Louise floated there, her entrails rising out from her abdomen to be reduced to nothing but a red mist, while what was left of her face contorted in an expression of pure and utter agony._  
  
 _And then her heart began to thump so loudly, that she could hear it over the sizzling of her own flesh, with each beat accompanied by a familiar viridian glow._  
  
=======#  
  
“All I’m saying, Siesta, is that the Prophet would probably be grateful for someone to be there to help her adjust to her new role.” Albert said thoughtfully as a grin came to his roguish features. “Why she may even grow fond of said individual.”  
  
“No, we are not having this conversation.” Siesta declared, moving on ahead deeper into the cave.  
  
“Any true son of the Great Mother would be obliged to pursue the hand of such a blessed maiden.” Albert declared, fists balling as he let his passions come to the fore. “To do any less would be the gravest of insults to the Divine Mother of all! To imply that her chosen Prophet was unworthy of courtship, why the thought makes my blood boil in righteous anger!”  
  
“Ugh.”  
  
The pair squeezed through narrow passage and finally reached their destination.  
  
“Well there it is.” Siesta said, gesturing towards the pulsating mass of white flesh that sat in the middle of one of the larger chambers. “Our Princess, all tucked away nice and cozy.”  
  
“Say, Siesta, when did you get the orders for this mission?” Albert asked.  
  
“About a day ago; Oracle was pretty clear about the location.”  
  
“And how long will it take for her to hatch out of her little egg?”  
  
“About a week for the process of Exaltation to finish, give or take a day or two” Siesta said as she sat down on the floor before the Chrysalis-Grotesque. ”The Count is supposed to be sending Demonic help, Anuhles and some Luminata. With the way those things move across the countryside, I expect that they’ll be here in a day or two.”  
  
“Wonderful.” He grumbled as he slid down one to the floor. “Best get comfortable then.”  
  
============#  
  
 _Where there had once been agony, there was now ecstasy like nothing Louise had ever felt._  
  
 _The beating of her emerald heart banished the murky remains of her mortal flesh that had surrounded her, clearing the waters so that should could observe her rebirth._  
  
 _With each beat, new flesh grew; organs, muscles and skin all began to return, perfected by the Infernal power of the Yozi, the Primordial God-Monsters that had shaped the raw chaos of pre-history into Creation, the first true independent universe._  
  
 _She moaned in joy with new vocal cords; her fingers flexing and her toes stretching. This was perfection, this was something she had never felt before._  
  
 _Power. She felt powerful, more than she had ever felt even on the days when her magic was being the tiniest bit cooperative._  
  
 _Newly grown muscles strained, eyes keener than ever before flashed with new insights and nerves flushed with a pleasure that was greater than anything she had ever felt._  
  
 _She threw her head back and screamed in triumph, rage and joy._  
  
=================#  
 _Five Days later…._  
  
“Got any fives?” Albert asked, as he shuffled his hand.  
  
“Go fish.”  
  
“For fucks sake!” The heavily armored boy swore as he flung his cards to the stone floor in frustration. “I bloody well hate this game!” He shouted.  
  
Siesta rolled her eyes at her cousin “You’re the one who wanted to play, Albert, don’t get hissy the second the game doesn’t go your way.”  
  
“You’ve won every bloody last game so far!” The tall boy shouted, throwing his hands and cards up in frustration. “How in Great Mother’s heaving bosom did manage that, you’ve never even played this before!”  
  
“I’m just smarter than you Al,” Siesta snapped back using his detested nickname. “It’s not your fault that the Great Mother didn’t bless you with blood as pure as mine mine.”  
  
“Arrghh!” He bellowed, slamming a fist into a stalagmite, shattering the rock formation that had taken more time to shape than the time between the founding of the four nations and Brimir's death. He stomped over to one of danker corners of the cave and flopped down as aggressively as possible.  
  
Siesta cringed as a bit of guilt stabbed at her; that had been a low blow really, especially since he didn’t come from a branch of their coven known for the strength of its bloodline. The poor boy was the only child in this generation within his family capable of changing his form, and even then he wasn’t particularly powerful. In fact if it wasn’t for his skill with a sword and close proximity to the mission, Siesta probably would have picked someone else or gone on alone.  
  
Sighing to herself, Siesta got up from where she was and walked over to her cousin and flopped down beside him.  
  
“I’m sorry Albert; that was cruel of me.” Siesta apologized, draping herself over her cousin. “Please forgive me.”  
  
“No, I will not forgive such a slight so easily, especially one directed at my family.” He proclaimed, turning away from the girl. “If you were not my dear cousin, I’d have challenged you to a duel by now!”  
  
“Ugh, if I let you stick it in, will you let it go!”  
  
“…Yes…”  
  
Siesta just pulled the boy into a sloppy kiss, hands skilfully undoing the buckles of his chestplate, the pair falling to the ground as their coupling grew intense. Albert pulled Siesta’s leathers off of her, showing off indecent amounts of skin, a hand snaking under the armour and cupping a breast.  
  
Siesta groaned and bit her lip, finally undoing the last of the straps on his breastplate and her hands going to expose his chiseled musculature.  
  
Their romp was interrupted with a squelching sound accompanied by a sudden emerald glow.  
  
Pulling their lips apart, the pair watched gobsmacked as the pulsating massive of white flesh split open in a burst of green light, a beautiful pinked haired girl sliding out of it in a wave of Primordial afterbirth.  
  
The girl, their Princess rose shakily of off the ground, a stylized cresting wave of a green sea shining on her forehead, the symbol of the Primordial Ocean, Kimbery the Sea that Marched against the Flame. It proclaimed her as the Great Mother’s champion, her Prophet to her people and person blessed to wield her might. She yawned as she stood, smacking her lips and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand like someone who had just awakened from a long and restful sleep, barely aware of the world around them as their brain trudged awake.  
  
Looking around the cave chamber in a bit of daze, she found the couple half undressed, expressions of shock on their faces as their were confronted with the prophet of their religion staring at their near naked forms as her brain struggled to realize what was going on.  
  
And then it clicked.  
  
“W-What are you doing!?” She spluttered in affronted indignation, which quickly turned to horror when she took in her own lacked of clothing, her blush spreading to the rest of her body.  
  
Hand futility covering her dedicates, Louise screamed at the top of her lungs.  
  
"WHY AM I NAKED?!!"


	5. Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2.1: Mothers

==============#

The group of three made their way through the moonlit forest path in silence, the dark haired girl in leathers leading them skilfully and swiftly along, while the heavily armed and armoured young man with a sour look on his handsome face took up the middle, and Louise trailed on behind, wrapped up in a cloak.

Louise was pointedly not looking at the pair, her gaze firmly planted onto the ground as she walked behind them.

She still couldn’t believe that had caught them doing that on the floor of cave! Like they were some kind of rabid animals, like they were Dog! Nothing but dogs in heat! The sheer lewdness of the pair, the sheer gall made her fume!

She grit her teeth as her face turned red; she could still vividly see... See things that pair’s state of undress had revealed, things that had left her feeling more mortified than she had ever

“So, uh, have you calmed down yet.” The brute asked, a contrite look on his face as he turned to look at her.

“Hmph.” She turned away from him, her blush growing even larger than before.

“Uh, this hasn’t exactly gone as planned, Siesta.” Louise heard him mutter to the girl.

“Well if someone hadn’t gotten their feelings hurt, then none of this would have happened!” Siesta snapped back. “Gods, I can’t believe that the Great Mother’s Chosen caught us i-in – such a compromising position!”

"Well if someone hadn’t offered sex as way of remuneration, she would have never seen my nob!”

“Stop being so crude!” Siesta rapidly whispered, “She might be able to hear you.” She scolded the young man, glancing meaningfully at Louise.

Louise returned the look with a glare that could have stripped the flesh off of dragon, Siesta flinched, quickly looking forward.

‘Good God! It was like the Great Mother Herself was angry with me!’ She thought to herself.

“Could this get any worse?” Louise mumbled to herself, crossing her arms in annoyance.

With a crack of thunder the skies opened up with torrential downpour, that drenched the scant protection of her cloak to soak her to the bone. The pair in front of her swore loudly as the rushed for the cover offered by a particularly large oak.

“Ugh… Founder curse it all…” Louise muttered as she joined them under the eve of the tree.

====#

“Whore, I’ll gut you I will!” The leather armoured brigand shouted, rushing forward with a wickedly curved saber in hand.

He was skilled, Karin noted, with little to no openings in his guard as he rushed her. His form spoke of experience and skill that could only be won through a rigorous combination of dedicated training and raw combat experience. If she was to be a judge, Karin would say that he actually outperformed the Commoners employed by the Crown, only Henrietta’s own personal bodyguard was actually a better fighter, some women called Agnes. She’d have to address that issue later.

For now, she had a bandit-lord to righteously murder.

With a tiny flick of her wrist, the air shimmered briefly as she bisected the raider from head to crotch with a thin blade of wind, the man not even having time to feel any pain.

She casually stepped over the steaming pile of gore, taking mind not slip on the blood or intestines, and surveyed her half-hour's work.

From where she stood on the dilapidated fortress' ramparts Karin could see smoke bellowing out from the shattered remains of the castle’s turrets and main keep, having once again proven that with enough lightning you could solve any problem.

Scattered around the redoubt were the broken bodies of over a hundred bandits; they were either fried by the lightning and thunder that was her birth-right, or they were sliced and skewered by blades and lances of wind that had splattered their red blood about their fortress like an infant with a paint set.

Karin recalled with grim humour that if she was younger or the mission was less dire, she’d probably have gone through these fools pockets by now and looted the fortress itself of anything that seemed even remotely valuable.

Up above her, soaring on the fresh thermals of the burning castle, Mr. Fluffles roared in triumph as his master made short work of yet another small army of brigands.

Growling in frustration; Karin willed herself up into the air and onto the back of her circling familiar.

“Louise wasn’t in that one either, let’s move onto the next location.” She said to her old friend, patting him on his side.

With a frustrated roar, the Manticore beat its great wings and soared higher into the air. Karin clutched onto reins of her familiar until the hard leather began to cut into her hands, anger and fear warring for dominance within her as the smoking ruins of the redoubt faded into the distance behind her.

It had been a week since Louise had been taken, and in that time Karin had searched fruitlessly for her youngest daughter.

She had scoured the lands closest to their home atop the back of Mr. Fluffles, but when that had eventually proven fruitless she had ranged further afield from the Vallière Estate in search of her child. Karin had barely slept the entire time, her appearance was now a shadow of its former regality; her hair was a brambled mess of knots and curls that twisted atop of her head, dark bags hung under her eyes and her normally maternal figure had grown thin and waxen from the stress and worry.

After all of that had proven to be pointless, Karin had gone out even further out atop of her familiar, hunting down the various extra-national groups that existed out near the unpoliced borders between Tristrain and Germania.

Out here in the wilds of civilization Karin had hunted down bandits and raider clans, the various different shadow groups that made their home here. She had killed hundreds of people in the week, slashing fleeing bandits with blades of lacerating wind, frying heavy infantry with bolts of crackling lightning and leveling freshly erected palisades and ancient castle walls alike with pin-point hurricane force winds.

And yet for all that destruction, all that death Karin had brought fresh into the world she had still failed to find her daughter.

Her chest heaved as she grit her teeth hard enough that spasms of pain coursed through her jaw. Leaning forward in the saddle, Karin embraced her oldest friend and buried her face in the Manticore’s mane as sobs shock her.

“Why did this happen!?” She shouted to the heavens as tears streamed down her face, “Why did this have to happen to Louise! Answer me, God and Founder! Why her, she didn’t deserve this fate, not her!”

As if to answer, the sky split open with thunder and lightning, rain pouring down and washing away her tears.

“Is that it?” She screamed back as the vented its fury alongside her, “Is that all the answer I will get from you!”

Once again all she received was the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning.

Karin threw back her head and screamed in grief and rage, her familiar bellowing in sympathy as they howled their sorrows into the storms.

Eventually she ran out of breath and fell back into her saddles, sobbing grossly as she slumped in complete and utter defeat. She didn’t know how long she sat there, tears pouring down her face and snot dribbling from her nose as the truth set in.

Louise was gone. Karin had scoured the lands and hadn’t found even a hint of her daughter, and with every second it was seeming less and less likely that she would find any. Her daughter was beyond her grasp, there was little to no hope that Karin would ever find her.

Karin’s heart broke not with a scream, but with a whimper as the Heavy-Wind curled up into herself as sorrow overcame her.

Mr. Fluffles roared and suddenly shifted course, circling towards the ground at an alarming pace, cutting through the rain like a sword through butter.

“What in the Founder’s name are you doing?!” Karin shouted as she grabbed hold of the reins and tried, and failed, to regain control of the beast. A familiar pressure in the back of her head, like a hand on the back of her head asking for permission, told her that her wished to share senses once more. Swearing to herself and cursing stubborn familiars, Karin acquainted to the beasts demands with a curse that she’d have spanked any of her children over.

For a second Karin was deaf and blind to the world, a side effect of their sense melding together, and then she was seeing through his eyes as well as her own, she felt the wind blow through his mane and the rain starting to soak through even his thick coat.

And then she caught the same scent he had; strawberry soap and the lavender perfume that Louise had liked. The smell barely caught in his nose, but it was there none the less, proof that all was not lost.

“Founder! Will you two just shut-up already!?” rang out the voice that Karin knew all too well, as if it was a sign by God and Founder.

“Louise” She breathed as more tears welled up, this time they were from of joy.

======#


	6. Chapter 2.2

> 2.2: Mothers  
> ==========#
> 
> _‘This’_ Louise thought, _‘Is probably the third worst day that I’ve ever had.’_
> 
> She and her traveling ‘companions’ had found shelter away from the storm under the branches of ancient white oak tree, its thick leaves blocking the worst of the weather.
> 
> It wasn’t even the rain that was annoying her, the water hadn’t actually made her cool and if anything she had actually gotten more comfortable with some water on her, as goosebumps had receded once the raindrops had ran down her body.
> 
> No, the problem was that she naked with only a cloak to cover what little remained of her tattered dignity. Just the thought of being so bare to the world banished any chill that was let in her as Louise underwent a full body flush.
> 
> “I swear to the Great Mother,” The girl – Siesta – whispered threateningly to the boy. “If I get in trouble over this, I’ll-“
> 
> “Don’t pin this on me!” He hissed back, “You’re just as much to blame for this disaster as I am! You were the one who want to say sorry with sex, again!”
> 
> From there the argument devolved, the pair growing louder and louder by the second as they threw insults and accusations at one another, eventually it grew so heated that the two of them scrambled to their feet so that they could scream at each others' face as loudly as they could, forgetting that scant seconds ago they had tried their best to keep their argument from her.
> 
> Louise shrank into herself as their volume rose and rose with each passing moment, her hands clutching at her ears to vainly block out the increasingly shrill voices.
> 
> She didn’t need this, Louise thought. Not after everything that had happened and with the looming trepidation that was growing every second as she began to realize what she had done, what she might have become.
> 
> It was like something something out of tales the Church told. A child born without magic refused to accept the judgement of God and would then pray to anyone for aid, prayers that would be answered in exchange for eternal servitude to the Lords of Hell.
> 
> Afterwards the stories became a bit samey. The heretic would inevitable go on an infernally powered rampage that would only be ended by the the bravery and heroic sacrifice of righteous God-fearing mages, who cast that maniacal monster into the pits of Hell, where they would be tortured gleefully by imps, for the forces of hell know not the Founders loyalty.
> 
> “I'm going to fucking murder you!” Siesta shrieked at the top of her lungs, jabbing the boy on the chest plate hard enough to make him take a step back.
> 
> “Try me!” he yelled, seeming to grow a foot larger as he loomed over the girl. A massive hand grabbed her by the lapel and lifted her up as he rose an armored fist to strike at her. She wasn't going to just taking it of course. She had wrapped her legs around his torso for leverage and aimed a palm strike at his lightly protected throat with force that would leave him gasping for hours.
> 
> Louise had just about enough of – of this childish quarrel!
> 
> She was wet, cold and completely naked with only a pair of perverted commoners for company and they were now gleefully attempting to murder one another. On top of that, her immortal soul was probably forfeit and would most likely become the plaything of some imp on the time of her death, Mother would most likely to put her down herself and she would probably spit on her grave once Louise was dead and gone.
> 
> “Founder! Will you two just shut-up already!?” Louise roared springing to her feet as her temper, which was never exactly a passive thing, overcame her in burst of boiling emotions.
> 
> The first word hadn’t left her mouth when the water on the ground and the droplets in the air began hiss and darken they congealed over a long moment into a sinuous, monstrous green-black tentacle. It lashed out as Louise screamed, slamming into the pair and sending them tumbling to the ground in a pile of groaning limbs.
> 
> “B-By the Great Mother!” Albert swore as he pulled himself off of Siesta and onto his feet, “Would you look at that! It’s like how the water gets during the Communion of Souls…”
> 
> Siesta rose shakily to her feet, her face going pale as she looked back and forth from the now gently withering tentacle.
> 
> “M-My P-Princess, I-I am sorry i-if we offended you. “ The girl stuttered out as she bowed at the waist, “It w-won’t happ-“
> 
> A bolt of lightning leapt out from the sky and struck the girl mid-sentence. It arched from Siesta in brilliant flash that left the air smelling of ozone and struck Albert square in the chest.
> 
> The two of them fell back to the grounds with yelps of surprise that turned to groans of pain as the lightning clung to them, encircling their limbs like ropes made of out of light and fury.
> 
> Louise knew this spell; a stunning bolt combined with static binds and arcing bolt. It hit the target and stunned them, while also restricting the weakened victims, who after such a blast would barely be able to stay conscious let alone force their way through chains made out of raw lightning.
> 
> It was a triangle level spell, combining three relatively low level spells together to achieve a far greater effect than the mere some of its parts.
> 
> “Louise!” A very familiar voice called out, Louise nearly hurt her neck with the speed her head turned.
> 
> With thunderous impact, Karin’s manticore landed onto the ground as the beat of its wings kicked up a whirlwind strong enough that Louise had to turn away and clutch her cloak desperately to preserve what little shame she had left in front of her Mother.
> 
> “Louise!” Karin shouted joyously as she leapt off of her familiar, a flick of her wand softening her fall with a cushion of swirling wind.
> 
> She ran over to her, heedless to her usual decorum, and embraced her daughter as tightly as possible. Karin spun the girl around as she buried her nose in her daughter’s hair, drinking in the familiar scent of her soap and perfume.
> 
> “Thank God.” She wept into Louise’s hair as another sob rocked her, “Thank God and Founder you’re alright.”
> 
> Louise just stood there awkwardly for a few seconds as she processed the fact that her mother, who normally was the picture perfect example of stoicism, was both hugging her tightly enough to knock the wind out of her, was also covering her hair in tears and snot as she sobbed loudly.
> 
> Hesitantly, Louise wrapped her arms around her Mother’s middle and returned the hug.
> 
> The two of them stood there in the rain, in an awkward hug that left Louise feeling more than a bit put out. Eventually Karin’s sobs subsided and she let go of her daughter.
> 
> “Right; let’s get you home.” Karin said as she stood up straight, taking off her own traveling cloak and wrapping it around Louise. “Go get on Mr. Fluffles.” Karin instructed, nodding towards the waiting familiar, “I’m going to have a few words with _these_ fools.” She spat as she turned to glare at the groaning pair of teenagers that were still on the on the ground, writhing in discomfort as their shackles crackled with power.
> 
> With that, Karin moved towards them, want raised threateningly for what would no doubt be quick and exceedingly painful interrogation.
> 
> Louise blinked dumbly as she sluggishly processed what her Mother had said, before she finally reacted.
> 
> “ _Wait! Wait_!” Louise scrambled after her Mother, her feet finding surprising purchase in the water logged ground. She grabbed hold of her sleeve and Karin stopped and turned to shoot her daughter an incredulous look.
> 
> For the first time Louise noticed how worn her mother looked; there were massive black bags under her eyes and her skin was pale and waxen. And she was so skinny! Her mother’s normally enviable figure had shrunk and her cheeks were hollow. The white of her eyes were lined with red veins and she even stumbled a bit as Louise pulled on her arm.
> 
> For the first time, Louise began to realized just how long she had been gone for.
> 
> “T-They weren’t the ones who took me.” Louise rapidly explained, “They found me in a c-cave nearby, but it wasn’t them. I don’t even remember anything.”
> 
> “Okay.” Karin nodded, as she slowly worked the information over in her worn out mind. Finally, after a long minute, she gave her wand a flick and the chains of lightning that were restraining the two dissipated in a flash and a bang that wasn’t too dissimilar to thunder.
> 
> She took her daughter by the shoulder and led her back towards her familiar as the pair flopped onto the ground, groans of pain and relief following them.
> 
> “The numbness should wear off in about an hour or two.” Karin said as she helped Louise up onto the saddle. Taking a moment, she pulled out a leather pouch and tossed it in between the teens.“That’s enough gold to buy you two decent titles in Germania if you wanted to, as a thank you for finding my daughter.”
> 
> With that she pulled herself up onto the manticore and it leapt into the sky with a stroke of its wings strong enough to shake the trees nearby and send the two on the ground tumbling limply into the tree trunk.
> 
> ==========#
> 
>  


End file.
